14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft is getting ready to release videogames for both the Sony wand, the motion tracking system coming to the PlayStation 3 at some point late in spring, and Project Natal, the motion-powered control solution that will arrive for the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. The company is preparing more games for the latter’s platform although it has not specified why it's more interested in it.
Yves Guillemot, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft, has told investors that “We have around 10 games that will come for Natal during the first six months of the launch of Natal, and we expect between four to five games for the new controller Sony.” He believes that based on the popularity of the rival devices from Sony and Microsoft, Ubisoft might actually change the proportion in the coming months.
The CEO has also mentioned that some of the games will be geared towards a casual audience and that about 70% of them will be new intellectual properties designed to work well with the motion tracking technology. Other publishers, like Electronic Arts and Activision, have announced they will be supporting both solutions but have not said how many games they will release or whether they will be part of already established series or all-new concepts.
Guillemot also appears to imply that other games released by Ubisoft, like The Forgotten Sands Prince of Persia, will make use of the wand and of Project Natal without being specifically created to work with them. It's not clear whether all the titles will support both motion tracking solutions or whether Microsoft and Sony insisted on exclusivity arrangements.
When the Sony wand and Project Natal were announced, the two companies promised that game developers would quickly receive development kits in order to make sure that, as the hardware is released, titles are simultaneously available.